Lists and Stuff

My universe is 99% stuff needing to be done and .01% consequential if it isn't.
I used to be a manic list writer. I even had lists of the lists I needed to make...then I started to realize that most of the things I felt to list never got done anyway.

So I started writing my lists as usual and then I would put them in the kitchen junk drawer. After a week had gone by I would take out the list and see how many of those important things that needed to be done had been. Usually, there would be maybe two out of ten items that could be satisfactorily crossed off as accomplished and somehow life had gone on and the universe had survived without the remaining items having even been attempted.

Eventually I stopped making lists that projected chores or events that would extend beyond one day. This had the effect of liberating me from the anxiety which the former list writing had stemmed from in the first place.

Not that the anxiety went away of course; it simply found an outlet in me smoking more cigarettes or in an increase in one of my other compulsive habits. But at least I got to cross off "list making" on my several lists of things to stop doing.